1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an animal feeding device, more particularly a bird or pet feeding device, comprising a tray for receiving and making accessible the food, a container holding means, a container of food uniquely adapted for insertion therein, and a means for automatically opening the container when the container is inserted into the container holding means.
2. PRIOR ART
Various types of animal feeders in which animal feed is discharged from a container or hopper into a tray and there made accessible to the animal are known in the art. Some of these comprise pre-packaged containers having a frangible portion which can be broken open to allow the food to disperse into the tray. In none of these, however, is the animal feeder provided with means for automatically opening the container when it is inserted into its holder, especially one comprising a perforating portion tapering upwardly to a perforating point and a pre-packaged container providing a frangibility which is a unique function of the perforating portion of the means for automatically opening the container and of the container itself. U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,234 shows an animal feeding device having a perforating point adapted to penetrate a perforatable wall of the container when it is placed in the container holding device attached to an animal cage. It is designed to handle liquid food and is not well adapted for handling solid foods because the shape is such that it does not allow access to the discharge portion from all angles, nor does it have a tray for receiving and distributing the food and in other respects is not of the same field of utility as the present invention.